Part 6
Like the Prophets and the Doctors I would fain enlighten souls. Fain would I travel the earth, O my Well-Beloved, to preach Thy Name and to set up Thy glorious Cross in Pagan lands. But one mission only would not suffice for me; would that I could at one and the same time proclaim the Gospel all the world over, even to the remotest of its islands. I would desire to be a Missionary not only for a few years, but to have been one from the creation of the world, and so to continue to the end of time.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
I long to accomplish the most heroic deeds. I feel within me the courage of a Crusader. I would die on the battlefield in defence of the Church.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
Open, my Jesus, thy Book of Life wherein are recorded the actions of all the Saints; those actions--would that I too, had accomplished such for Thee!
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
Souls--dear Lord, we must have souls! Above all, souls of apostles and of martyrs, that through them we may inflame the multitude of poor sinners with love of Thee.
HIST. D’UNE AME, APPENDIX
After recreation one day when the Mother Prioress had spoken of the persecution already raging against Religious Communities, Sœur Thérèse said to a novice: “Ah! Sister, we live in an era of martyrs! Blood will be shed.--What happiness if it should be ours!”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
A novice on her way to the laundry one day, went at a slow pace through the garden, looking at the flowers as she passed. Sœur Thérèse who followed walking quickly, soon overtook her and said: “Is that how one hastens who has children (_souls_) to support, for whose sustenance she is obliged to work?...”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
During her illness she wrote:
“The will of the good God is my sole desire; and I declare that if in Heaven I could no longer work for His glory, I would choose exile rather than the Fatherland.”
IV LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
What draws me towards the Heavenly Country is the call of our Lord, the hope of at last loving Him as I have so ardently desired, and the thought that I shall be able to make Him loved by _a multitude of souls_ who will bless Him eternally.
VIII LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
Confidently I count upon not remaining inactive in Heaven, my desire is to work still for the Church and for souls: this I ask of God, and I am certain that He will hear me. If I quit already the battlefield, it is not with the selfish desire of taking my rest. Suffering has long since become my heaven here below, and it is difficult to imagine how it will be possible for me to become acclimatized to a country where joy reigns, unmingled with sorrow. Jesus must needs transform my soul completely, else I could not support eternal bliss.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
Just now a few notes of distant music fell upon my ear, and set me thinking that very soon I shall hear melodies beyond compare; yet this thought can give me but a moment’s gladness; one only expectation makes my heart throb: _it is the love that I shall receive and the love that I shall be able to give!_
_I feel that my mission is now to begin, my mission to make others love the good God as I love Him ... to give to souls my little way._ I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN IN DOING GOOD UPON EARTH. This is not impossible, since the Angels in the full enjoyment of the Beatific Vision keep watch over us. No, I shall never rest till the end of the world! But when the Angel shall have said: “Time is no more!”[78] then I shall rest--shall be able to rejoice, because the number of the elect will be complete.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Apoc., x, 6.
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SIMPLICITY
When I read certain treatises where perfection is set forth as encompassed by a thousand obstacles, my poor little head grows weary very quickly. I close the learned book which puzzles my brains and dries up my heart, and in its stead I open the Holy Scriptures. Then all appears clear, luminous ... one single word discloses to my soul infinite horizons, perfection seems easy. I see that it is sufficient to recognize our nothingness, and to leave oneself like a child, in the arms of the good God. Let great souls and sublime intellects enjoy the beautiful books which I cannot understand, still less put in practice; I rejoice in being little, since “_children only and those who resemble them will be admitted to the Heavenly banquet_.”[79]
It is well that the Kingdom of Heaven contains many mansions, for if there were none other than those of which the description and the way seem incomprehensible to me, I should never be able to enter therein.
VI LETTER TO HER MISSIONARY “BROTHERS”
My patrons in Heaven and my chosen favourites are those who have stolen it--like the Holy Innocents and the Good Thief. The great Saints have earned it by their works; as for me, I will imitate the thieves, I will have it by ruse, a ruse of Love which will open its gates to me and to poor sinners. The Holy Ghost encourages me, saying in the Book of Proverbs: “_O little one, come, learn subtlety of me._”[80]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Our Lord replied to the mother of the sons of Zebedee: “_To sit on My right and on My left hand is for them for whom it is prepared by My Father._”[81] I imagine that those places of choice, refused to great Saints, to Martyrs, will be the portion of little children.
Did not David predict it when he said that _the little Benjamin will preside amidst the assemblies_ (of the saints)?[82]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
“If you could begin your religious life over again” asked a novice, “what would you do?”
“It seems to me that I would do as I have done.”
“You do not then feel like the hermit who used to say: ‘Even though I had lived long years in penance yet I should fear damnation while there still remained to me one quarter of an hour, one breath of life.’”
“No, I cannot share that fear, I am too little to be damned, little children are not damned.”
“You always seek to be like the little ones--but tell us what we must do to possess the spirit of childhood? What does it exactly mean--to remain little?”
“To remain little--it is to recognize our nothingness, to expect everything from the good God, not to be too much afflicted about our faults, for little children fall often but are too small to hurt themselves much: in fine, it is _not_ to make one’s fortune, nor to be disquieted about anything. Even in the homes of the poor, as long as a child is quite little they give him what is needful; but when grown up, the father is no longer willing to support him and says: ‘Now work! you can provide for yourself.’ Well, it was to escape hearing that, that I have never wished to grow up, for I know myself incapable of earning my livelihood--Eternal Life!
“Again, to remain little is not to attribute to self the virtues we practise; but to acknowledge that the good God places this treasure in the hand of His little child to be made use of when required.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
It is a great trial to see only the black side of things, but that does not depend completely upon you. Do your best to detach your heart from the cares of this world, and above all from creatures; then you may be sure that Jesus will do the rest. He could not suffer you to fall into the abyss. Be comforted, little one, in Heaven you will no longer see _all black_ but _all white_; yes, all will be clothed with the divine whiteness of our Spouse, the Lily of the Valley. Together we shall follow Him whithersoever He goeth.... Oh! let us profit by the brief moments of this life to give pleasure to Jesus, let us win souls for Him by our sacrifices. Above all let us be little, so little that all the world may trample us under foot without even our appearing to feel it or to suffer from it.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
You are wrong to find fault with one thing and another, and to seek that all should yield to your way of viewing things. We want to be like little children, and little children know not what is best, to them all seems well; let us imitate them. Besides there would be no merit [in obedience] were we only to do what would appear reasonable to us.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
A novice under a temptation which seemed to her insurmountable said: “This time I cannot rise above it--it is impossible.” Thérèse replied: “Why do you try to rise above it? Pass beneath it quite simply. It is very well for great souls to soar high above the clouds when the storm is raging, but for us, we have merely to bear the showers with patience. If we do get rather wet--no matter! We shall dry ourselves afterwards in the sunshine of Love.”
That brings to mind this little trait of my childhood; a horse one day standing at the garden gate barred our entrance; those with me endeavoured by force of talking, etc., to get him to move back, but while they talked I very quietly slipped in, through the horse’s legs.... See how one may gain by remaining little!
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
To a young Sister discouraged at seeing her imperfections, Sœur Thérèse said: “You make me think of a very little child who is just able to stand upright but does not yet know how to walk. Intent upon reaching the top of the stairs so as to get back to his mother he lifts his foot to climb the first step. Fruitless endeavour! At each attempt he falls without advancing in the least. Well, be like that little child; by the practice of every virtue keep on ever lifting your little foot to climb the steps of sanctity, and do not imagine that you will be able to mount even the first! No; but good will is all God requires of you. From the top of those steps He is watching you with love; and won by your unavailing efforts He will Himself soon come down, and taking you in His arms will bear you away to His Kingdom, never more to quit Him. But if you cease to lift your little foot He will leave you a long time on earth.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
The only means of making rapid progress in the path of Love is to remain always very _little_; that is what I have done; so now I can sing with our Father St. John of the Cross:
And stooping so low, so low, I rose still higher and higher And thus I attained my end.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Someone was speaking to her of the mortifications of the Saints, she replied:
“It is well our Lord has let us know that _there are many mansions in His Father’s House, that if not He would have told us_.[83] Yes, if all souls called to perfection had been obliged to practise these macerations in order to enter Heaven, He would have said so, and gladly would we have undertaken them. But He tells us that _in His House there are many mansions_. If there are those for great souls, for the Fathers of the Desert and for martyrs of penance, there must be one also for little children. Our place is reserved there, if our love be great--for Him and for our Heavenly Father and the Spirit of Love.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
“I feel that my mission is now to begin,” she said a few days before her death, “my mission to make others love the good God _as I love Him_, to give my _little way_ to souls....”
“What is this ‘little way’ that you want to teach to souls?”
“_It is the path of spiritual childhood, it is the way of trust and of entire self-surrender._ I want to make known to them the simple means that have so perfectly succeeded for me, to tell them that there is but one only thing to do here below: _to cast down before Jesus the flowers of little sacrifices, to win Him by caresses!_ That is how I have won Him, and that is why I shall be so well received.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
If I am misguiding you by my _little way_ of Love, she said to a novice, do not fear that I shall let you follow it very long. I shall appear to you, and tell you to take another path; but if I do not return, believe in the truth of my words: _never can we have too much confidence in the good God, so mighty and so merciful! As much as we hope for shall we obtain from Him!_...
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
A novice said to her on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: “If you were to die to-morrow after Holy Communion, it seems to me that so beautiful a death would console me in the midst of my grief.”
And Thérèse replied with animation:
“Die after Holy Communion! On a grand Feast day! No, it will not be so: little souls could not copy that. In my little way there are only quite ordinary things; all that I do, little souls must be able to do also.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[79] _Cf._ Matt., xix, 14.
[80] _Cf._ Prov., 1, 4.
[81] _Cf._ Matt., xx, 23.
[82] _Cf._ Ps., lxvii, 29.
[83] _Cf._ John, xiv, 2.
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PRAYER
As I grew older I loved the good God more and more, and very frequently did I offer Him my heart, using the words my mother had taught me. I strove in all my actions to please Jesus and was most watchful never to offend Him.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. II
My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
Great is the power of prayer--a queen, as one might say, having free access always to the King, and able to obtain whatever she asks. In order to be heard, it is not necessary to read from a book a beautiful form of prayer adapted to the circumstances; if it were so, how greatly to be pitied should I be!
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
I have not the courage to force myself to seek beautiful prayers in books; not knowing which to choose I act as children do who cannot read; I say quite simply to the good God what I want to tell Him, and He always understands me.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
Prayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly a _Pater_ or an _Ave Maria_; these prayers alone console me, they suffice, they nourish my soul.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. X
The principal plenary indulgence and one which all may gain without the ordinary conditions, is that of _charity which covereth a multitude of sins_.[84]
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Formerly if any of my family were in trouble, and that I had been unable to succeed in comforting them during their visit, I would go from the parlour heart-broken; but soon Jesus made me understand that I was incapable of giving consolation to a soul. From that day forth I grieved no more when anyone went away sad; I confided to the good God the sorrows of those who were dear to me, feeling certain that He heard me, and at their next visit I used to find that it had indeed been so. Since I have experienced this, I no longer torment myself when involuntarily I give pain; I simply beg of Jesus to make up for what I have done.
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
One day after Holy Communion the good God made me understand those words of the Canticles: “_Draw me: we will run after Thee to the odour of Thy ointments._”[85] O Jesus, it is not then necessary to say: In drawing me, draw the souls whom I love. These simple words: “_Draw me_” suffice! Yes, when a soul has allowed herself to be captivated by the inebriating fragrance of Thy perfumes, she could not run alone, all the souls whom she loves are drawn after her; this is a natural consequence of her attraction towards Thee.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
“_Draw me, we will run...._”
To ask to be drawn is to will intimate union with the object which holds the heart captive. If fire and iron were gifted with reason, and that the latter said to the fire: “Draw me,” would not this prove that it desired to become identified with the fire even so far as to share its substance? Well, that is exactly my prayer. I beg of Jesus to draw me into the flames of His Love, to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love inflames my heart, the more I shall say: “Draw me,” the more also will the souls who draw near to mine run swiftly in the fragrant odours of the Well-Beloved.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
Souls thus on fire cannot rest inactive. They may sit at the feet of Jesus, like Saint Mary Magdalene, listening to His sweet and ardent words; but, while seeming to give nothing, they do give far more than Martha who troubles herself with _many things_.[86] It is not however of Martha’s labours that Jesus disapproves, but only her too great anxiety; to this very same work His Blessed Mother humbly submitted herself, when she had to prepare the repasts for the Holy Family.
All the Saints have understood this, and more especially perhaps those who have enlightened the world with the luminous teaching of the Gospel. Was it not from prayer that Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas of Aquin, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa and so many other friends of God drew that wondrous science which enraptures the greatest intellects?
Archimedes said: “Give me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will raise the world.” What he was unable to obtain because his request had but a material end and was not addressed to God, the Saints have obtained in full measure. For fulcrum, the Almighty has given them Himself, Himself alone! for lever, prayer, which enkindles the fire of love; and thus it is that they have uplifted the world, thus it is that saints still militant, uplift it, and will uplift it till the end of time.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XI
The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of one poor little soul to save a multitude of others, redeemed like her at the price of His Blood.
Our vocation is not to go and reap in the Father’s fields; Jesus does not say to us: “Cast down your eyes and reap the harvest”; our mission is still more sublime. Here are the words of the Divine Master: “_Lift up your eyes and see_ ...” see that in Heaven there are empty places; yours it is to fill them ... you are as Moses praying on the mountain; ask of Me labourers and I will send them, I await but a prayer, a sigh from out your heart!
Is not the apostolate of prayer higher as one might say, than that of preaching? It is for us to form labourers who by preaching the Gospel, will save thousands of souls of whom we thus become the mothers; what then have we to envy the Priests of the Lord?
XII LETTER TO HER SISTER CÉLINE
How beautiful is our vocation! It is for us, it is for Carmel to preserve “_the salt of the earth_.”[87] We offer our prayers and sacrifices for the apostles of the Lord; we ought ourselves to be their apostles while by word and example they preach the Gospel to our brethren.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. VI
A novice was grieving about her numerous distractions during prayer: “I too, have many,” replied Sœur Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus, “but I accept all for love of the good God, even the most extravagant thoughts that come into my head.”
COUNSELS AND REMINISCENCES
Her prayer was continual though she was habitually plunged in aridity. One day a novice entering her cell, paused, struck by the celestial expression of her countenance. She was sewing with alacrity yet seemed lost in profound contemplation.
“Of what are you thinking?” asked the young Sister. “I am meditating on the _Pater_,” she replied. “It is so sweet to call the good God our Father.” And tears shone in her eyes.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
I do not well see what more I shall have in Heaven than now, she once said. I shall see the good God, it is true; but as to being with Him, I am wholly with Him already upon earth.
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
A living flame of Divine Love consumed her.
“A few days after my oblation to _God’s Merciful Love_,” she relates, “I had commenced in the Choir the Way of the Cross, when I felt myself suddenly wounded by a dart of fire so ardent that I thought I must die. I know not how to describe this transport; there is no comparison which would make one understand the intensity of that flame. An invisible power seemed to plunge me wholly into fire ... but oh! what fire! what sweetness!”
The Mother Prioress asked her whether this transport was the first in her life, she answered simply:
“Mother, I have several times had transports of love; once especially during my novitiate when I remained one entire week far indeed from this world; for me, there was as it were, a veil thrown over all things of the earth. But I was not consumed by a real flame, I was able to sustain those delights without expecting that their intensity would cause my earthly fetters to snap asunder, whilst on the day of which I speak, one minute, one second more and my soul must have left its prison.... Alas!--and I found myself again on earth, and aridity immediately returned to my heart!”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. XII
FOOTNOTES:
[84] Prov., x, 12.
[85] Cant., 1, 3.
[86] Luke, x, 41
[87] Matt., v, 13.
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HOLY COMMUNION